Al Veluu Ristorante Suites — Restaurant in Tremezzina

I rarely write reviews — Generally not worth my time or energy. Here is an unfortunate aberration. I am writing this because I feel compelled to let others know how completely upsetting this dinner experience was.

I made reservations for Al Veluu over a month in advance, speaking to the “son of the former owners” who said I secured the terrace for dinner. The same manager called me to confirm the reservation the day of, and oddly asked me what hotel I was staying at. I did not think much of the question until we arrived at the restaurant and had been placed in a canopied room far from the terrace, next to a wood-burning oven on a 85 degree evening with no view.

Racking my brain to try to figure what had happened after speaking to the hostess and the manager about how I made specific arrangements several weeks before, it finally dawned on me: Foolishly, I made the mistake of letting the owner know I was staying at not the most expensive/best hotel at Lake Como when he called to confirm the reservation. And he, in turn, downgraded the experience for us thinking we would not have enough money to spend on the meal, and be deserving of the “good seats.” I know this because I was at the Grand Tremezzo hotel before dining at Al Veluu for drinks and saw three separate couples from that hotel be sat on the terrace after we had arrived. I highly doubt they had tried to make the same arrangements I did prior to the visit, but the perceived wealth seemed to be the deciding factor. I have never felt so judged or shamed in my life — sounds dramatic but the owner of this restaurant seriously leveled me and I do not wish this type of experience on anyone else visiting Lake Como.

Other notes: the food was mediocre. The best dish was the pesto and meat pasta. The server tried to sneak in a 2017 vintage of wine when we ordered a 2016 thinking we would not see the label (just to add some insult-to-injury icing on top). The steak tartare tasted ranked, semi masked by a massive amount of luke warm grey poupon mustard. I give it a D minus. The cut of the meat we received for one of our main courses was so fatty and tendoiny, half of it was inedible. Let’s give it a C plus.

Net net, I would not come here unless you are hoping to spend your evening with rude people and eating below average food. If you are however, looking for your ego to get knocked through fairly antiquated, though generously performed executions of marginalization, this is definitely your spot. Seriously this was such a Julia Robert’s moment from the movie Pretty Woman.

At the end of the day, there is a ton of bad stuff happening in the world and a bad meal pales in comparison to a lot that is going on. That said, having lived in Manhattan for 12 years, I always thought food and hospitality to be the great equalizers. It saddens me that the owner of Al Veluu would not allow me, and probably others, to take part in what could have been a better experience. I wish he had told me that were no reservations available when I called over a month ago instead of smothering my face in his disheartening bias and subpar food.

Do not come here....

Al Veluu came as a highly recommended restaurant and it was such a disappointment. My bf and I came here for our first night of vacation dinner, it’s important to note, we’re 26. When we first arrived the server gave us our menus and quickly took our orders, I found it strange that they didn’t offer specials with such a limited menu, but no big deal. We ordered filet for dinner for 2, “cooked table-side” (according to the menu) for $100. The waiter told us we “probably wouldn’t like the mustard sauce” and offered us a red wine sauce instead, great, so we thought. About 20 minutes after we were sat another older American couple (probably late 40s) was sat next to us and we overheard the waiter listing a round of specials. Initially just disappointed we didn’t hear them, we assumed the server forgot (happens!). They also ordered the steak dinner for two. When our steaks came out, i was surprised they weren’t cooked tableside as the menu said, but they were decent and we were modestly happy with them. However, when the older American couples steaks began to be actually cooked table side, we were VERY confused. For one, why were theirs cooked table side and ours weren’t? And then we saw their steaks. The size and quality difference in the cuts of meat we were offered was night and day. While we were served small/thinner (6oz) serlions, they were served HUGE thick filets. At this point we were SO CONFUSED and should have said something but we had finished our meal, been there for 2 hours and wanted dessert and to leave. The tiramisu was fantastic. Finally, they offered to call us a cab which we accepted, except we wouldn’t have if we knew it would take over an hour to arrive and we watched 4 other tables get priority and their cabs were called after ours, picked them up first. Again, could have been down to situation except we were all staying in the same hotel .5 a mile away. My bf and I felt like the staff saw a young couple and assumed we either didn’t have money or didn’t know what to expect of a high class restaurant experience. Either way - it was clear our experience was incredibly different from...

The restaurant owner is a thief. My grandma was taken here for her 80th birthday and it was the most disappointing meal and their actions after was disgusting. It took two hours to receive an extremely average piece of pâté, after being blatantly ignored. After this wait, without any apology or explanation, we decided to leave. The owner came out saying a chef was unwell, and after we said we don’t understand why that’s our problem when we’re at the restaurant spending our hard earned money, the owner turned very aggressive. Telling us to go back to our own country and many other horrid insults. We offered to pay for the wine we drank and the average pâté but all we got in return was being shouted at to never return. Anyways, two days later, after the owner had obviously realised that my 80 year old grandmother had put her card details in to obtain a reservation, he stole €200 from her card, which was absolutely devastating. Overall, the owner is horrid and the service is horrid. Really would...